Home made toffee

I have just read the messages about the steerys that we used to make and race round Boundary Street in the fifties. It brought memories flooding back of how we spent our days. I remember going with my mates down the dock road with a white National Dried Milk tin. These were plentiful as many babies were fed on the stuff. We would find a lorry parked with sacks of brown sugar there. To slit a sack and decant some sugar into the tin took only a few seconds. We would then take the sugar to a holler underneath the arches which we called " up Sebasi". This was an area off Boundary street which was called after the battle of Sebastopol.

Some brave soul would pinch some Echo ( or Stork if they were posh) from his mam's cupboard and this was added to the sugar. We would light a fire with a few sticks and place the tin in the flames. Soon the mixture was bubbling up nicely. The tin was removed from the flames and the elixr was allowed to cool. It could then be chipped from the inside of the tin and consumed, To us it tasted great but it was probably disgusting. You also risked breaking your teeth because it used to set as hard as stone. To think at the time I was about 6!

I also remember popping bubbles in the tar in the gutter on hot summer days and making darts with pigeon feathers and tar. I apologise if this has been covered here before but reading the posts just took me back to the sunny, carefree days of my childhood in Newport Street.